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Apoligist or Critical Thinker?

A video has appeared on-line which seems to show a university Prof, segregate his students in to groups of those who reject the idea of man made climate change and those who accept the science. He then goes on to berate the climate deniers for killing their children and billions of others.

I became aware of this video on Steve's Goddard's blog, ... ah-hem ... 'Real Science'.

Anyway the video does look terrible, with a teacher ranting at his poor students just because they disagree with the theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). But something smelled a rat. It all seemed too convenient that climate science deniers would be offered this on a plate - students being coerced, frightened and ridiculed. But it was clear the video had been edited and what got me really suspicious was that there was a seating plan telling the various groups of students where to sit and at one point a student makes a comment about their spokesperson being allowed to speak. Surely this was just a lively class debate. I made a comment on Goddard's blog voicing my suspicions;

"I would be on Steve’s side about the indoctrination of young people but I strongly suspect that this has been spun into something it isn’t.

It looks like a class debate to me. Each side seems to have a spokesperson and there seems to be plenty of humour between the groups and the teacher. Because the video has been edited we do not know if we only see one side of the debate, nor the results of it."

This comment received a typical reply from Mr. Goddard's fans, I was an APOLOGIST (Yep, it was in caps). Imagine suggesting 'It must not be what it appears to be!'

Guess what? A few posts later and there was a retraction on 'Real Science'. Another video is found showing a different and very similar story to what I thought. The professor is seen challenging both sides with extreme rhetoric.

Because this poor guy was now the subject of science denial fever he issued his own version of this 'indoctrination' event, which was reported here. He said he used some stronger rhetoric to force students to think about possible solutions that could impact their futures. “There’s nothing wrong with anything I did there,” he said. “I was only trying to challenge them to think. “I was challenging everyone. That’s part of my job. I was not dictating any decision, because I wouldn’t know what to dictate anyway,” Which is exactly the opposite of what Goddard and others in the climate denial sphere initially accused him of. I wouldn't be surprised if the highly edited and misleading video is still used in future by some, creating a meme of poor students getting pressured into thinking in a particular way.

Of course with this information I could respond to my accuser;

"I am not an APOLOGIST, I’m a skeptic, something science deniers like to be called but never live up to.

And it seems I was right to be skeptical because Steve has now issued a retraction. It does look like this was a debate and was edited to show only one side with the intention of getting those without critical thinking to react in exactly they way they did. It looks like this teacher was actually challenging his students to think for themselves and form their own counter arguments, which is exactly the opposite of indoctrination which is what some have claimed here. You wanted to take this video at face value simply because you thought it supported your beliefs.
Speaking of apologists, I’m man enough to accept one if you are man enough to make it."

That was over a year ago but still perhaps he will? Any further correspondence can be found here.